Of Glass Boxes and Aliens
by Geneivere StarryEyes
Summary: Because of a mess involving some mutualistic alien parasites, The Doctor meets a young girl named Mandy who seems distant and unemotional. What does she have to do with anything? The Doctor soon realizes and has to save the lives of two and not one.
1. Morning

**_So ave had this in the works since August, and it's more than half done, so it's posting time! I love the theme behind 'Fear her' and it just sparked this off in my head. So with out further adieu, here's 'Of glass boxes.'_ **

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Of glass boxes - Chapter One

Mandy sat in a peculiar glass box – some where in her mind, put away safely from the world, observing languidly from her perch. She liked it this way, this way she could look all she wanted and not have to feel. On the outside, she was functioning enough to not arouse any suspicion. It had been tiring, her life that went no where. A life where everyone blamed her for everything and told her she needed to grow up. She knew she was useless, absolutely so and lost, and could never do anything right. And she hated it so much.

**_Too much information_**

There was too much for her to deal with, too much to have to think about. And she knew it was silly, what got her upset, what made her feel unloved but it didn't matter now. It hadn't mattered for a while now. Minutes ago, a few weeks ago, a few months ago, time had passed. It was funny because one day she stopped caring, everything had cleared up to her and she went away into her self. It was easier since she stopped caring because nothing bothered her. She did everything automatically without being, she even got a job. The screaming at her stopped and the blaming. Her house was quiet and she supposed that was good.

**_All of a sudden the people, the talking the telephone, all fades away you visit a place in a timeless dimension _**

She wasn't alone now, she went into herself and found a friend, a creature, a thing – something. She didn't know what it was but it was cute, sweet and named Clu. Clu was amazing, Clu played with her at night in her glass box and showed her so many fun things and so many frightening things. Clu sometimes showed her what others were thinking but Clu always left in the morning. And morning was when Mandy needed to go to work.

The coffee shop was pleasant as always, full with cheery smiles over hot coffee or tea. Mandy did as she was told; she had picked up the routine quite quickly and never complained. Everyone thought she was lovely, if a little introverted. Twenty years old with an innocent face.

"These for the table with the two handsome men!" the bubble headed manager pushed the tray with a coffee and a tea on it. She had been bubbly once,_ Mandy observed to herself from her glass box, on her belly, swinging her legs, on her elbows. In her glass box she was wearing a flowy white dress._

Mandy placed the cups on the table and vaguely smiled, she barely caught the conversation between the two men.

"I barely call that a reason for needing me here, one of those things should be easy to catch," An accent that wasn't English. _The glass box echoed with a giggle, a foreigner - goodie. _But her face did not change.

Another voice rejoined with a reply, "Oh come oooon, you know what they say about finishing what you started!" A whiny, peevy British voice. A sweet voice but it didn't reach the waking part of Mandy, just the part of her in that box.

"Yeah, you should finish what YOU started," American accent continued, "We cleaned up most of this mess – a mess you created albeit, but now it's the last one, and I really need to get back to Torchwood, there's rift trouble brewing."

"Oh fine, I can handle it, any way! We tracked it to this area, that's all I needed you for – the telchin have a biological signature that is wicked to track, the TARDIS was having difficulty tracking it cuz it dropped out so often, so erratic like gigantic firing neurons. So I needed that scanner of yours – that what cha ma call it to attach to the …" British accent babbled," So it can –"

"Am sure, ave heard this all before Doctor," American accent interrupted. He gulped the rest of his coffee and made to leave.

Mandy noted that she had been staring at the men without realizing it but what did it matter. She was standing there, leaning on the counter with the tray under her arm like a text book. When suddenly the remaining man seated at the table looked straight at her with deep set soft brown eyes and a kind, curious expression. It was a strange, aged look like one a parent gives to a child that seemed unusual in such a young face, a nicely angled face, a pleasant face. _She was even tempted to come out of her glass box to look closer._ She turned away fluidly and put the tray on the counter.

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**_Hope you liked it and it tickled your fancy. Tell me about it... in a review :) I love me some reviews! Taste just like chicken 0_o _**


	2. The Encounter

The workers continued serving orders. Mandy was wiping a table and looking - just staring.

_She peered, her nose pressed against her box. The intelligence in his eyes was too shiny. She looked on extremely interested. Mandy in the box wanted to know. Mandy in the box usually only liked to look but now she wanted to get closer to him. His aura was drawing, it was also terrible and it intrigued her in the way scary movies are attractive to little kids._

"I am going now okay, you can call me if the world is ending," Jack threw back a flirtatious wink, "Or of you change your mind about that date i talked about." He exited the cafe.

Mandy turned back and he was still staring at her, a slightly bemused, slightly concerned look on his face. The doctor sensed something off about the girl that served their drinks, from the moment she set their drinks down. It was her vacant look, her eyes devoid of emotion, of life. She hadn't responded to his polite "Thank You" either but he was so involved in talking too Jack, he didn't do anything right away. She looked zoned out, the way she was looking back at him. Wouldn't it be bonny if she was the one the _telchine_ had latched on too and he wouldn't have to go knocking on the all the doors of the neighborhood. Knocking on random doors was not as fun alone - without Rose. He shut himself off from feeling that loss. She wasn't dead for goodness sake. He just could never see her again.

Telchin were a type of mutualistic species from the fauna and flora planet of Rhodes, it needed a symbiote to exists and grow which was no problem on ROHDES where its host species also existed but the Doctor had accidentally created a worm hole or rather several smaller worm holes that warped a good flock of young Telchine in several _different directions - _to several different planets where they promptly attached to the nearest organism. And that left even more to take care of, because they were not evolved to partner with species that had higher levels of sentience – like time lords and humans.

_Oh he's so bonny! Clu you should be here to see him. Oh, I want to touch him._

Just then, he rose from his seat and walked over to her with long, fast strides and before her vacant consciousness could realize, he was in front of her and he was babbling energetically,"Staring isn't nice, don't you know – staring, now there's something that's caused lots of trouble, started a war some where on …oh well you don't need to know," The strange, young man in the brown pinstriped suit ran his hands through his hair then looked at her closely, wagged a finger in front of her.

"No pupil reaction huh, hummm," He suddenly shot a hand out and touched her forehead, but gently, "Temperatures lower than it supposed to be too and one more thing to confirm it,"

He suddenly screamed, "AH BOO!' in the loudest way possible. The others in the café looked up from their hot beverages staring at him as if he were a lunatic but she didn't even blink; she took a calm moment and then turned to collect more orders.

"No nervous reaction, insensitivity to stimulus…" He murmured to himself, hands deep in his pockets.

"I have to get back to work, would you like something else Mister?"

"I'm afraid you've got something wrong with you, terribly wrong, something that's not supposed to be, my fault really and I'm sorry, really I am," He called after her.

She stopped but not abruptly, something flickered briefly, something from her past_, Mandy in her box frowned, this guy is a freak, she no longer wanted to look at him._

"Would you like some thing else Mister?" she gazed serenely at him.

"Tea would be nice, a name too, what's yours?" He was standing straight, barely repressed energy oozing from him.

"Mandy, my name's Mandy Pearson."

"Hello Mandy Pearson, I'm the doctor," He offered magnanimously, closing the few feet of distance between them.

_The doctor - Suddenly Clu appeared out of no where next to Mandy in the box. Clu looked agitated._


	3. Run

_"Oh Hi Clu, nice to see you, you look mad, what's up!"_

_"Run!" Clu replied strangely._

_Mandy gave her a perplexed look before babbling on, "You should see this guy, he's nutso!"_

_"RUN," Clu screamed and pushed Mandy in the box, out into her self._

It stunned Mandy the moment, her consciousness hit the surface, she stumbled as she stepped and she fell. The Doctor saw intelligence flood back into her eyes and he knew what was next, she would look up and ask what was going on and he would tell her.

Except she didn't, she scrambled for her feet, got up and ran – shakily but fast enough, running into tables, dodging them and nearly tripping several times. The people jumped out her way and some swore as hot beverage spilled on them. Some one took out a phone. "That's not necessary," The lanky time lord pulled out his wallet with the blank piece of paper, "Social services, nothing to see," He yelled before running after her.

"RUN," Clu echoed from some spot inside her and it pushed her on, made her pump straining legs, all along the side walk, past trees planted in steel things in the ground.

"Come now, don't do that," The doctor groaned while running after her, his feet carrying him behind her. His face contorted, brow scrunched, she was fast despite her apparent disorientation. She was running for flight, in a body that was on auto pilot for who knows how long. She had to stop sometime.

And she did, or rather a man in a long, military, grey coat did. She ran smack into him and canted over, unto her bottom. _Clu reached out and pulled Mandy back_ _– back into her glass box. And hugged Mandy tightly with her arms and shivered._

_"What's wrong Clu? Mandy was confused and frightened as well, "What's happening?"_

_They clung to each other._

_"He's bad Mandy, he's terrible."_


	4. Clu

The doctor saw the glint of intelligence leave the girls eyes as she fell down and when she looked up, unquestioningly and without any expression in her eyes. She got up to walk away as if the chase never happened. He took her by the shoulder and sighed.

"Oh, Mandy Pearson, where have you gone, hummm," and touched his tongue to the top of his mouth, then he turned to Jack, "Thank you Jack, she's the last one, I'm almost sure."

Jack scrutinized the girl, "Look's like it, though it doesn't look as bad as the last case, she had gone mad and was murdering others."

"Look's can be deceiving – it's not on the outside, the damage mightn't be fully seen until the telchine comes _out._"

"Nice – next time try saving a planet directly in an inactive time stream without poking holes through the fabric of its space." Jack admonished

"It was very small holes,"

"They varnished Doc,"

"Just twelve,"

"And it took us dinner and tea to get them back, "Jack retorted sarcastically.

The girl was seemingly forgotten during this exchange.

"I already apologized several times and I fixed everything already,"

"Everything except her," Jack regarded the girl with blue eyes.

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"Easily done, no problem," The doctor grinned," Just like with the rest,"

"Most of _the rest_ weren't human," Jack stated.

"Complain, complain – now let's see," the doctor pulled out his psychic paper and looked at it for a moment then flashed it at her," Social Welfare and services – just visiting around and asking questions, do you think enough is being done, that lot – Where looking for, my where do you live?"

"Carsem settlements," she replied in a monotone, _Mandy in her box screeched – noooooooooo, let me out Clu, Clu I have to get out this box. Clu I can't let him follow me home,"_

_Clu held on too her, no don't go out there, your safe in here nothing can hurt you here, haven't I always protected you? Mandy nodded one hand on the glass. Then trust me. Then Clu did something she had never done before – she took active control of Mandy's body and put Mandy to sleep._

_I do was the last conscious thought she had._

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The doctor was still half arguing with Jack when he felt something change because the girl was no longer oblivious but she was staring at him from her short height with hatred in her eyes. Her posture had changed her demeanor.

"Your fault," she stated and then ran – Agilely - No longer stumbling.

Fast, jeez she was even faster now - Oh goodie, more running.

"Come on doc, don't let her get away!"

He was getting old, it had to be - a slip of a girl was being faster than him, a confused slip of a girl. It was no fair.

"She's heading for that ally way," Jack shouted

And whys it always ally ways, small tight ally ways.

"I SEE! I SEE!"

Mandy easily jumped a chain linked gate, hand over hand and landed on her feet.

"Oncoming storm," She whispered.

The doctor reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out the small, harmless sonic screw driver and aimed it at the lock on the gate, and a blue light issued from it. The metal U on the lock clicked up and it opened. He hurriedly stuffed it back into his trouser pocket.

They came face to face with the girl, a brick apartment wall behind her, light lazed in and formed shadows in the spaces. The girl's face was hard and angled. Her eyes glowed. She was still.

"Ah hah, got you ! Oh you're fast!" The doctor grasped his knees as he tilted his face up towards the girl. "Now I'm assuming, you're not Mandy Pearson, who are you?

"No,"

"What have you done with Mandy Pearson?"

"Nothing ...safe,"

The doctor hummed a little and took out his sonic screw driver again. He flicked it on and was scanning her with it.

"Oh splendid, Telchine signature,"

Her eyes glowed brighter.

"Lost, because – of – you," Her speech pattern was punctuated and halting, "Hate you – love Mandy."

Clu remembered. "Scream – your name, they - lost – all of them, you – lost – we scattered,"

The doctor understood what she was saying, Telchine were mostly telepathic, so spoken words gave them trouble.

"You read it off my mind – you know it was my fault,"

"Your fault," she echoed, eyes wider now, "Can't go home."


	5. Protection & Promises

The doctor felt the empathy rise and swell in him for maybe the hundred times since the entire incident started. The Telchine were just kids, like the aliens that caused all the trouble for the 2012 Olympic. It was tugging at his hearts' strings and he was really sorry, truly sorry and he voiced it,"I'm sorry, I am but you can't stay in Mandy, she wasn't meant to live like that."

"But – I protect her – she was so sad, not sad now," The girl frowned deeply.

"Oh but you can't, you don't belong here,"

"Can't go home, not you – will stay with Mandy," Her eyes flared some more, red, purple.

Jack looked at the doctor with warning, "This never happened with the others,"

"No, it hasn't…. hummm manifesting physical force with her consciousness," To the girl, "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to take you home – home where you can be with your family again,"

"Home," The light flickered out in her eyes and she looked lost.

"Yes home," He said in a coaxing tone, smiled gently, then wider, "Imagine that, home," He drawled, his eyes lit up, "All the Kreeyon stream particles you can consume and a proper host – so you can touch and feel and live for real."

"Home," she repeated. She missed home terribly. But she loved Mandy.

"Mandy…. Mandy alone – soo alone, I leave, alone,"

"Mandy has to live her own life – you protected her when she needed some one, now you need to let go."

So Clu – can – home – go?"

"Clu, is that your name," The girl nodded, the doctor continued "Yes, but I need to talk to Mandy first,"

"Mandy – in box, Mandy safe there, Mandy – wants – to stay in box,"

Understanding dawned, "You only did what she wanted, to be locked away from the world," Compassion throbbed in the air, coming of him in waves.

He thought for a while, "Clu, I'm gonna need to take a look around Mandy's mind, can I do that?"

"On coming storm," She replied.

"No I won't hurt her."

"Your word - Doctor?"

"I promise," He said in his characteristic voice, sweet –authoritative – certain.

Jack interrupted at this moment, "This is all fine and dandy but I don't think this is the place for mind 'mojo-ing' or what ever that is that you plan on doing – it's not intimate enough."


	6. Home Matters

**_Happy New Year folks :) here's another chapter and thank you dear lone reviewer, I have strength to continue writing. On another note, this story is getting rather mushy, and well if you were one of those people who didn't like 'Fear her' then you should just stop because it only gets more sappier as it goes. So, for those who will endure the melodrama, enjoy today's chapter._**

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They ended up at Mandy Pearson's house, a quant affair with a simple, wooden fence. Clu had disappeared again to some corner of Mandy's mind frightened and unsure leaving Mandy in her glass box terrified. That left Mandy's body once more on auto pilot with the barest of her consciousness. She called out as she cross the threshold into the corridor.

"Mom, I bought visitors,"

"Honey, you're back from work, visitors you say? Are they your mates, you haven't bought any one home in ages."

They came in after Mandy, and Mandy's mother stopped dead at the sight of the two, strange men in her doorway.

"Who're you then?" She asked eyes hardening.

"I'm the doctor and this is Jack Harkness." Jack flashed his characteristic roguish smile in counterpart to the introduction, "Captain Jack Harkness mam – Torchwood."

At the mention of Torchwood, all colour drained from the woman's face.

"I'm sorry, but you have to leave," The girl's mother said quickly avoiding eye contact with them.

"I'm sorry but we can't," The Doctor spoke up, "There's an alien entity leaving in your daughter, it's bonded with her and it won't come out until Mandy feels safe. She's repressed herself."

The woman deflated and the tense breath she was holding, whooshed out of her leaving her weak. She looked up, "What are you going to do?"

The Doctor held her shoulder, "Hopefully, not much."

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They were seated on the homely little couch now, their coats hung up on hooks on the corridor.

"So when did you first notice a change in your daughter Mrs. Pearson?" Jack asked. The Doctor kept a still silence.

The woman's eyes teared up. "Six months ago, it was six months ago, some time after her father died. She changed, got quiet and withdrawn. She suddenly got a job too, but she wasn't herself. I…I thought that she had grown up. She doesn't talk now; she used to be such a chatterbox…. I just thought she had matured, faced reality." The woman stumbled over her words, "She was fine, really…now all she does is sleep … she'll listen to the same song on repeat, over and over again." Mandy's mother was overcome," I didn't know, I swear!"

"You didn't know, you saw everything and you still thought she was fine. Your daughter turned into a shell, what could be more glaring – humans can be so blind." The rage was mixed in with incredulous disbelief. The only reason she's not comatose is because of the thing in her."

The woman was freely crying now, and Mandy returned with her mother's customary afternoon tea; she took a seat, cross legged on the floor because there was no where else to sit. She regarded everyone vacantly.

"Oh god, no!" Mrs. Pearson sobbed, "I never meant to make her like this, I just wanted her to… to…"

"Grow up?" The doctor supplied in a dry tone. Jack shot the doctor a stern look that said 'control your self'.

"It wasn't your fault." Jack made an attempt to comfort the woman to some degree.

Right now the doctor was in one of those disagreeable moods, where he wasn't ready to tolerate humane short comings, "But it's some of her fault, most of her fault, trying to shove her daughter into a mold of expectations, Clu sensed that and latched on."

Jack trying to diffuse the situation, clapped the time lord on the back, and grinned at the lady. "Don't you worry, the doctor knows how to fix her – don't you Doc?" His voice went up a few discernable decibels in volume, as if to cue his friend that it was time to pull out the 'savior of the universe act'.

The Doctor glowered at the time agent, "oh sure – but things ,might get iffy after Clu leaves and Mandy has no choice but to reclaim her body fully."

"What, like withdrawal?" Jack asked.

"Exactly like withdrawal."

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**_Rate and Review as you like._**


	7. Talk to me

Next chapter ready and delivered. Hope you like it. It's awful like I said but once somethings started you should finish it for better or worse.

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_"I can help her_

_If you let me_

_Will you let me?"_

The skinny time lords were almost hypnotic, and full of assurance.

"Just let me help your daughter."

Mrs. Pearson broke down, her shoulders shook and she nodded between sobs. Jack had gone to her side and put a comforting. Mandy was still cross legged on the floor – still not there.

The Doctor knelt in front of Mandy, on one knee, on the nondescript grey carpet so he was almost level with her eyes. Large dark brown eyes bore into darker, more black eyes, eyes which weren't like one way mirrors, but like deep, dark, black holes that sucked away everything but returned nothing. IT chilled him. Those eyes looked straight past him, right through him like he wasn't there.

"Mandy…Mandy, I know your there," _Pause_, "I know you can hear me – I'm coming in, okay."

Mandy in the box saw this 'Doctor' staring at her, looking straight at her, and she gasped, and scuttled deeper back. She was afraid and confused but curiosity was gnawing at her. The tickly, sparkly feeling made her feel unsettled and apprehensive.

He put his fingers to her temples lightly and closed his eyes. He touched her mind tentatively but there were no walls up to push through.

He touched again, and found himself in a large white space – empty except for a clear, glass box, and in that glass box sat Mandy Pearson. A regressed version of the girl – looking far younger than the real Mandy – her face pressed against the glass. Most of her memories and emotions were out of sight, probably shelved away in some deep corner of her psyche. Human minds were capable of so much, were capable of holding out such difficult situations. It was something, for something to be so tough and to be fragile all at the same time.

"Hello there!" The Doctor called out cheerfully, rocking on his heels alittle. His mouth was stretched into a genuine grin, "Why don't you come out of that… box of yours so we can chat."

The girl shook her head vigorously.

"Oh come on, you can go right back if you don't like what I have to say … not everyday I meet a Mandy Pearson …how many millions of stars and planets and people and I'm talking to you!" he was rapt, and Mandy wondered how stupid he was.

She turned her face away, "Stupid."

"That's rude…"

She made the box opaque.

The doctor frowned, " Don't be like that, I'm just trying to help…. Just a couple of minutes, just some talk, I would offer tea but seeing where we are, I really can't… but for Clu's sake… and I can't talk to you well from behind glass… now can I?" He pulled on an earlobe.

She brushed some of the fog from the box and looked at him again. She cleared all of it away. A kind face, a lilting accenting, bright, shiny eyes - the curiosity was killing her despite herself.

"I told you, you can go right back if you get the tiniest bit sick of me…"

In the end, curiosity won out on Mandy and she lifted the invisible box cover and tumbled out, onto her knees. She dusted her knees. The man regarded her brightly.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you Mandy Pearson, and I'm the doctor." He stuck out a hand for her to shake genially. _She's rather small, how bad is this? _She didn't take his hand, just regarded him with childish defiance.

"I know. I know who you are – you scared Clu away. And now she's gone." She wiped her eye, "Clu's mine."

He put his hands in his pockets and stooped so that he was her height, "That's what I want to talk about." He made his face serious, like a concerned father.

A father? Mandy bent her head.

"Clu doesn't belong here… she isn't from earth, she has brothers and sisters. She's lost and scared just as much as you are."

"But Mandy has a mommy that_ loves_ her." He replied, taking her shoulders. Understand, make this easier for her - Let go.

"No," Mandy spat, "Mommy hates Mandy, all she does, is make noise."

The Doctor had faced every fierce species in the universe - Daleks, Cybogs, vespers, angels and myriad others. But a child was some thing else. A child didn't act methodically or intentionally, they just wanted to be seen and known.

"You mother only did what she thought best and I'm sorry…. Sorry that she didn't know."

Mandy frowned, "I don't want her to go."

"I know." Sadness edged his voice; He knew that this might be just as tragic as a planet dying. A girl's entire universe was what would crumble - Her mind.

"You just have to be strong for you and Clu, you have to face it like a grown up… only you can do it!" His eyes turned hard, the expression in his eyes intense. It struck a chord in Mandy but it wasn't a good one.

Mandy screeched, "Grow up - that's everything… all that Mandy hears, all I can stand!" The wind churned up and the violent forces whipped like gales over the sea. The doctor held his ground, taking the full brunt of her fury.

Her features were older closer to the true Mandy – smokey, and vengeance stung.

The time lord stepped back, not knowing what to do, not wanting to complicate things further.

_"This could probably get worse._" He tried to reassure himself weakly, not very confidently.

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